(Contrary to the Tory mythology about the BBC, it amplifies rather than counteracts the political bias of the press. As Robert Peston has said, BBC News is "completely obsessed by the agenda set by the newspapers....If we think the Mail and Telegraph will lead with this, we should. It's part of the culture.")

Below are three tables compiled from publicly available information.

UK national paper(s)

Average

weekly

print readership

NRS

Website only

Comscore

Combined print and website

(removing duplicates)

% of total

Effective owner/s

Info

about

owner/s

Political support

General

Election 2015

Daily Mail &

Mail on

Sunday

8,724,000

5,691,000

13,255,000

17.6%

Lord Rother-mere

Billionaire.Lives in France.

Non-Dom.

Alleged tax avoider.

Tories

The Sun &

Sun on Sunday

10,344,000

339,000

10,602,000

14.1%

(Scotland alone estimate

1.2%)

Rupert Murdoch

Billionaire. Lives in US.

Alleged tax avoider.

Tories except in Scotland where SNP

Metro

7,315,000

992,000

8,108,000

10.8%

Lord Rother-

Mere

Billionaire.

Lives in France.

Non-Dom.

Alleged tax avoider.

Tories

Mirror & Sunday Mirror

5,346,000

2,222,000

7,329,000

9.7%

Trinity Mirror plc

Public Limited Company.

Labour

Guardian & Observer

2,349,000

5,171,000

6,998.000

9.3%

Scott Trust Ltd

A company with purpose to secure Guardian’s independence

Labour

Telegraph & Sunday Telegraph

2,709,000

4,277,000

6,577,000

8.7%

David
and Frederick Barclay

Billionaires.

Live on private island near Sark.

Alleged tax avoiders.

Tories

London Evening Standard

3,801,000

649,000

4,340,000

5.8%

Alexander
& Evgeny Lebedev

Alexander is a billionaire, ex-KGB and lives in Russia. His son,
Evgeny lives in UK

Tories

The Independent & Independenton Sunday

& i

2,034,000

2,479,000

4,316,000

(Indy alone estimate

2,500,000)

5.7%

(Indy
alone estimate

3.3%)

Alexander & Evgeny Lebedev

Alexander is a billionaire, ex-KGB and lives in Russia. His son,
Evgeny lives in the UK